Friday, August 25, 2017

The Rolling Stones have released a lyric video for their 1967 song "2000 Light Years From Home" in advance of the upcoming 50th anniversary reissue of their classic dark psychedelic masterpiece LP, Her Satanic Majesties Request. The Stones themselves are not featured in the clip, however it features all the touchstones of the era, from a floating yogi, dancing mushrooms, groovy space ships, and doors that open new worlds of perception. The Her Satanic Majesties Request reissue arrives on Sept. 22 as a box set with both stereo and mono version of the album on vinyl and a hybrid super audio CD along with a 20-page book with new liner notes. - Billboard, 8/30/17...... The sister of late rock icon Prince, Tyka Nelson, has told Britain's Evening Standard paper in a new interview that her famous brother's favorite color was actually orange -- not purple. "The stand out piece for me is his orange Cloud guitar," Nelson said about a Prince memorabilia auction earlier in August. "It is strange because people always associate the colour purple with Prince, but his favourite colour was actually orange." A cursory search of images of Prince could bear Nelson's assertion out, as he appeared in a sparkling orange tunic at the 2016 Grammy awards, in an all-orange suit from his legendary 2007 Super Bowl performance, in orange with an orange guitar during a Las Vegas residency in 2006, and in orange wear at the 2006 BET Awards and the 2012 iHeartRadio festival. The shocking claim comes as Spotify erected several simple all-purple billboards earlier this to promote the addition of his catalog to their streaming library, and more recently the Pantone Color Institute partnering with the Prince estate to create a new custom shade of purple in his honor. - Spin.com, 8/29/17...... On Aug. 24, David Bowie reached another posthumous milestone -- the 1 billionth stream of the late rocker's catalogue on the Spotify streaming service. Bowie reached the benchmark with his 1977 classic "Heroes" leading the way as his most-streamed solo track of all time on the popular subscription platform. "Heroes", originally recorded in English, French and German, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2017 and will enjoy a special limited edition picture disc release in September. Also coming that month is the latest in a series of career-spanning Bowie box sets, A New Career in a New Town, which covers the years 1977-1982. Bowie passed away on Jan. 10 of cancer, two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar, which became his first No. 1 album in the US. - Billboard, 8/29/17...... The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Aug. 28 that the upcoming New York Film Festival will include the debut of a new Bob Dylan documentary titled Trouble No More. The concert film, directed by Jennifer Lebeau, features long-lost footage from Dylan's '79-'80 tour. Also premiering will be a new doc about the career of Jaws director Steven Spielberg directed by Susan Lacy and featuring interviews with his fellow directors Francis Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. The 55th New York Film Festival, also showcasing new films from Woody Allen, Todd Haynes and Richard Linklater, is set to run Sept. 28-Oct. 15 at Lincoln Center. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/28/17...... On Aug. 28, a U.S. District Court judge issued an extraordinary injunction banning the release of Street Survivor, a new documentary about the 1977 plane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. The injunction is the result of a lawsuit brought by heirs of Van Zant and Gaines, along with Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, who sued the film production company Cleopatra and alleged that former Synyrd drummer Artimus Pyle assisted the making of the movie in violation of his agreements that the band survivors never use the name Lynyrd Skynyrd again. "Cleopatra is prohibited from making its movie about Lynyrd Skynyrd when its partner substantively contributes to the project in a way that, in the past, he willingly bargained away the very right to do just that," Judge Robert Sweet opined. "In any other circumstance, Cleopatra would be as 'free as a bird' to make and distribute its work," he added, making reference to the band's signature tune, "Freebird." The filmmakers argued that Street Survivor didn't and wouldn't represent any authorization from the band, that the production company wasn't a party to the agreements, and that the film constituted free speech. But after hearing evidence, the judge has now sided with the heirs and ordered up an expedited trial. Attorneys representing Cleopatra said their client still intends to release Street Survivor and will seek relief from an appeals court. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/28/17...... Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Jackson, paid tribute to her late dad on Aug. 29, what would have been the King of Pop's 59th birthday, by posting a photo of herself as an infant kissing her father. Writing in the accompanying caption, the 19-year-old remarked that she'd "never feel love again the way I did with you." "You are always with me and I am always with you," Paris added. "Though I am not you, and you are not me, I know with all of my being that we are one. And our should will never change in that way. Thank you for the magic, forever and always." Jackson also appeared during the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 27 and called out "Nazi, white supremacist jerks" when discussing the recent violence and far right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. "As a nation with liberty as our slogan, we have zero tolerance for their violence, their hatred and their discrimination," she declared. - New Musical Express, 8/29/17...... In the late 1960s, pioneering rock & roller Jerry Lee Lewis mounted a return to the country music charts after his career was nearly derailed over a 1950s scandal involving his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra. Lewis scored several top country singles, including "What Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye," "To Make Love Sweeter for You" and "Touching Home," and recently a petition was started online to call attention to his exclusion from the Country Music Hall of Fame (he was among the first inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. "I don't know why I am not in it," the 81-year-old Lewis said of the CMA snub. "I mean, they got it stirred up and talking about it. I don't know why they don't put me in it. I don't understand that." And there seems to be plenty of support for that within Nashville's music community, who consider "The Killer" more of a country singer than a rock star. "You know, I was at the age that I didn't really know him as a rock 'n' roller until I got in the bar and started playing his rock stuff," says country star Toby Keith. "But I knew all of his country songs. He's an incredible country singer." On Aug. 24, Lewis was honored by top country artists such as George Strait, Kris Kristofferson, Chris Stapleton and Lee Ann Womack during the live concert series Skyville Live. Womack said that Lewis' contributions to music, no matter the genre, should make him eligible. "He's one of the greatest artists that we have ever had the pleasure of having in country music," she said. "That's my opinion and I am sure that's most everybody's opinion. I think anybody that has made that kind of impact deserves to be in the Hall of Fame." Lewis adds that "my style of country music is just me... I wouldn't know how to do anyone else's." - AP, 8/26/17..... The band Muse closed out the UK's Reading 2017 festival on Aug. 27 by bringing out AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson for a surprise jam. Johnson joined the trio on stage at the start of the encore. "He's back!" announced frontman Matt Bellamy, inviting the singer to the stage to join Muse in a cover of AC/DC's "Back In Black." "Thank you so much, thank you boys," Johnson said at the end of the song, hugging Bellamy. The performance marked one of Johnson's first since being forced to leave AC/DC in 2016 to hearing issues. He previously joined Robert Plant and Paul Rodgers on stage in Oxford earlier in 2017. - NME, 8/27/17...... Tobe Hooper, the pioneering director of the 1974 grisly horror masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well as Poltergeist, died on Aug. 26 in Sherman Oaks, Calif., of as yet unannnounced causes. He was 74. Hooper, who began his film career as a documentary cameraman in the 60s, gained fame as director of two of the most frightening and original horror films ever made. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre practically invented its own strain of evocative rural terror, telling a story of a group of friends drawn into the deadly orbit of a group of cannibals. The film, made for only $300,000, drew widespread acclaim and is remembered as one of the greatest horror films of all time. Hooper cowrote The Texas Chain Saw Massacre script with Kim Henkel, basing it loosely onthe horrific crimes of Ed Gein, a murderer whose influence would also be felt on a latter horror classic, The Silence of the Lambs. While initially banned in some countries, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre became recognized as a great horror film in that, much like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (also inspired by Gein), most of the violence was implied as a traveling group of teens found their way into the company of a demented clan of cannibals in a Texas slaughterhouse, led by the saw-wielding burly figure Leatherface. While the film was initially lambasted for its shockingly violent subject matter, it received reconsideration over time for the restraint shown onscreen, and stands with films like Halloween and The Night of the Living Dead as pictures that helped shape the genre. Subsequent and far more violent incarnations of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series helped launch the film careers of Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger, along with Jessica Biel. Hooper's other classic was Poltergeist, the 1982 ghost story produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as parents who move to a dream house in the suburbs, only to find it full of ghosts from a graveyard below the house. Perhaps his other most memorable credit was directing the 1979 miniseries adaptation of the Stephen King vampire saga Salem's Lot. Hooper's last directing project was he 2013 horror thriller Djinn. - Deadline.com, 8/27/17.

Sting and composer J. Ralph, who collaborated on the Oscar-nominated song "The Empty Chair" for a recent documentary about murdered American photojournalist James Foley, will be honored at The Smithsonian for their contributions to American music. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will acquire donations from the pair, including "The Empty Chair," and participate in a discussion hosted by Dan Rather, followed by performances from Sting and the world premiere of Ralph's new symphonic piece, "Evolocean. Tickets to the free event will benefit the Smithsonian's culture and arts programs. - Billboard, 8/25/17...... Many may not be aware that the subject of the famous Beatles tune "Eleanor Rigby" was an actual person who is buried in Peter's churchyard in Woolton, Liverpool -- where Paul McCartney and John Lennon spent time growing up. Now, Britain's The Guardian is reporting that the grave of Eleanor Rigby will be auctioned off in September, with bidding expected to land somewhere between £2,000 ($2,570) and £4,000 ($5,100). If you happen to win the auction, you could have the right to be buried in the same plot as Ms. Rigby in only seven years. In addition to the grave rights, the original handwritten score for the track will go up for auction as well -- that's expected to bring in around £20,000 ($25,700). - Stereogum.com, 8/22/17...... Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band kicked off their North American Runaway Train tour on Aug. 24 before a packed house at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. Seger, in strong voice and sporting an Olde English D t-shirt, played a 21-song set that opened with "Roll Me Away," "Trying to Live My Life Without You" and "The Fire Down Below," also squeezing in "You'll Accomp'ny Me," which he told the crowd he hadn't played in 25 years, and a first-ever live performance of the title track to his 1991 album The Fire Inside. Seger also tapped his most recent release, 2014's Ride Out, for a pair of songs, the environmentally conscious "It's Your World" and a pumping rendition of Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand." Two separate encores included "Against The Wind," "Hollywood Nights," "Night Moves" and "Rock and Roll Never Forgets." Seger's Runaway Train Tour currently has dates booked through Nov. 4, with more expected to be announced. The Michigan-based rocker has been recording new songs, primarily in Nashville, but no release plans have been revealed for the material. - Billboard, 8/25/17...... Longtime Glenn Frey and Eagles collaborator Jack Tempchin has released Peaceful Easy Feeling: The Songs of Jack Tempchin, a collection of some of the most well known songs he and Frey wrote together. Peaceful Easy Feeling also features a song called "Privacy," which Tempchin says was the final song he and Glenn wrote together, though it was never recorded prior to the sessions for this album. "Glenn and I wrote this song in 2002, back when we both first became concerned about the issue of privacy," Tempchin says. "To me, it's become one of the main issues of our time, but most people haven't woken up to it yet. This song and video illustrate that point in a playful and humorous way." Dropping via Blue Elan Records on Aug. 25 and created in tribute to Frey, the album also features Tempchin's covers of some of his most famous songs as well as other previously unreleased material. Tempchin has also premeired a new video for "Privacy." - Billboard, 8/25/17...... A moving version of Glen Campbell's 1968 hit "Wichita Lineman" was played by its composer, longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb, during a memorial to the late Campbell at the Country Music Hall of Fame's CMA Theater in Nashville, Tenn., on Aug. 24. Also attending were a bevy of Campbell's friends and family who paid tribute to the CMA member in an invitation-only event entitled "Remembering Glen Campbell." Webb also marveled at how Campbell -- who did not read music -- could transfer his complex chords to the guitar, while Beach Boys members Mike Love and Bruce Johnston performed a version of "I Get Around" in tribute to Campbell, who played on that and several other Beach Boys songs as part of the legendary Wrecking Crew group of studio musicians. Other celebrities in attendance included country stars Brad Paisley and Steve Wariner, the I'll Be Me Campbell documentary director James Keach, and actress Jayne Seymour, who hosted the event. Campbell died on Aug. 9 at age 81, and was buried the following day in his hometown of Delight, Ark. - Billboard, 8/24/17...... Art Garfunkel will release a new memior, What Is It All but Luminous: Notes From an Underground Man, via Knopf on Sept. 26. In the 256-page tome, Garfunkel recalls the time he met Paul Simon at Parsons Junior High "where the tough kids were, Paul Simon became my one and only friend." "We saw each other's uniqueness. We smoked our first cigarettes. We had retreated from all other kids. And we laughed," Garfunkel writes. Publishers Weekly notes the forthcoming book "reveals flashes of real insight about the transcendent power of music and the inner workings of a singer's life." - Billboard, 8/24/17...... In a new piece for Vogue magazine, David Bowie's widow Inman writes that the "outpouring of grief" from the public following her late husband's death "helped tremendously" in the months after his passing. Iman said that "the stars demanded David's presence" at the time of his death. "We surrendered a husband, a father, a father-in-law, a friend, a mentor, and all the nameless daily ecstasies that occur between people who love one another. The model, who married the late artist in 1992, added the "outpouring of grief over David's passing has helped me tremendously, though sometimes I've been at odds with it, too: Universal grieving for your life partner can also keenly deepen your own sense of all that you've lost. David gave me the most exciting, touching, and deliriously loving 24 years. Still, it was not enough" shockingly brief. And although I'll never get used to losing him, David is nonetheless hiding in plain sight." - New Musical Express, 8/24/17...... Rod Stewart is set to premiere a new version of his 1979 hit "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" with the Joe Jonas-fronted group DNCE during the MTV VIdeo Music Awards on Aug. 27 remotely via video from Las Vegas. The announcement coincides with Stewart's new partnership with Republic Records, which is also DNCE's label. "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" was first released on Stewart's Blondes Have More Fun album in 1978, then topped Billboard's Hot 100 for four weeks in early 1979. - Billboard, 8/23/17...... Performing at the Moonfest 2017 concert in Illinois during the U.S. solar eclipse on Aug. 21, Ozzy Osbourne and his band took the opportunity to play the fitting Ozzy number "Bark at the Moon" just as the skies went dark. The former Black Sabbath singer made no reference to the eclipse, instead telling the audience: "I don't think I've ever been in this part of the world before. I love you all. Thank you for coming to see me." - NME, 8/23/17...... In related news, sales of Pink Floyd's classic 1973 space-rock epic The Dark Side of the Moon increased by more than 160% on the day of the eclipse, selling more than 1,000 copies across all retailers in the U.S. In addition, Dark Side spent much of the day lodged at the top of the U.S. iTunes Store's top album ranking, while Bonnie Tyler's hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was No. 1 for most of the day on the iTunes top songs tally. - Billboard, 8/22/17...... Speaking of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour has shared a clip from his upcoming concert film Live at Pompeii. The shows at Pompeii took place July 7-8, 2016 during Gilmour's world tour to promote his latest studio album Rattle That Lock. "I think (the film) is more than any of us could've expected," says director Gavin Elder. "Pompeii wasn't the last concert on the tour, but it was the highlight, that's for sure." Live at Pompeii will premiere in more than 2,000 theaters worldwide on Sept. 13, with release on CD, vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray and digital downloads to follow on Sept. 29. - Billboard, 8/22/17...... Billy Joel, who recently told Rolling Stone magazine that he prefers to stay away from political commentary, has apparently decided to change his mind when it comes to the recent notoriety of neo-Nazi sympathizers, supporters and national "Unite The Right" rallies. Joel made a powerful, political statement on Aug. 21 when he donned a yellow Star of David on the lapel and back of his jacket during the encore of his concert at New York's Madison Square Garden. Joel wearing the symbol comes less than a week after the deadly White Nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Va., which left three dead, and Pres. Donald Trump's controversial remarks following the tragedy. - Billboard, 8/22/17...... The judge overseeing the estate of Prince has appointed a second special administrator to investigate whether anyone should be held liable for the cancellation of its $31 million recorded-music deal with Universal Music Group. The new administrator, Peter Gleekel and his law firm Larson King LLC, is tasked with evaluating whether the estate has a "reasonable basis" to pursue a claim against any entity or individual connected with the July rescission of the deal, and whether it's in the estate's best interest to pursue such a claim. Meanwhile, a secret vault that contains hundreds of hours of unreleased music by Prince will reportedly be unlocked in order to maintain his legacy. Prince's sister Tyka Nelson claimed her late brother had always intended for his fans to hear the music contained within the vault, which is situated at his Paisley Park home. "It was always Prince's plan to release those songs. I want what Prince wants. We have to preserve everything. So as soon as we can release it, don't worry -- we sure will," Tyka told the UK publication The Sun. Along with unreleased demos and new versions of classic Prince tracks, the vault is said to also contain extensive concert footage and live recordings. On Aug. 21, it was also announced that a Prince exhibition featuring rare and iconic items from the singer's life will open in London later in 2017. The exhibition will include guitars, stage costumes, jewellery and items from iconic tours such as Purple Rain in 1984 and LoveSexy in 1988. Opening on October 27 at the O2 in London, the Prince exhibition will run for 21 days. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 8/22/17...... Former Parliament-Funkadelic member Bootsy Collins will release his first new album in six years, World Wide Funk, on Oct. 27 via Mascot Records. Contributors to the 15-song LP come from across the musical spectrum, including jazz-funk greats like Victor Wooten and Stanley Clark to old school MCs Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane and Chuck D. Collins was one of the main songwriters and charismatic stars of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s, where he was heavily involved in iconic albums like 1975's Mothership Connection and 1976's The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein. - Billboard, 8/24/17...... Albert "Sonny" Burgess, an early pioneer of the rockabilly genre, died on Aug. 18 in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark. He was 88. Mr. Burgess was among a group of singers in the mid-1950s who mixed rhythm and blues with country and western music. The sound became known as rockabilly and included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Mr. Burgess eventually signed with Sun Records in Memphis, where Presley, Cash and Lewis were among the artists under contract. He was later inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. - AP, 8/21/17...... Bruce Forsyth, a legendary British entertainer, host and quizmaster on English television whose career spanned the history of TV, died on Aug. 18 at his home in England. He was 89. Dapper and mustachioed, with a toothy smile and cheeky charm, Mr. Forsyth was a television presence for 75 years in such shows as Play Your Cards Right, The Price is Right and The Generation Game, earning him recognition by Guinness World Records in 2012 for having had the longest on-screen television career for a male entertainer. More recently, Mr. Forsyth co-hosted Strictly Come Dancing, a popular dance competition that premiered on BBC One in 2004 and where he delivered such crowd-pleasing catchphrases as "Nice to see you, to see you nice" and "Give us a whirl!" He retired from the program in 2013. Mr. Forsyth was knighted in 2011. - AP, 8/20/17.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Jerry Lewis, an American comedy and film legend who dominated show business with his "straight man" singing partner Dean Martin in the 1950s before going on to star in, write and direct dozens of classic movies on his own, died on Aug. 20 at his home in Las Vegas after battling numerous health problems in recent years. He was 91. Born Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, N.J., to professional entertainers, Mr. Lewis made his debut at age 5 at a hotel in the Borscht Belt, the legendary upstate New York venue, by singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" He dropped out of high school and, while working as a soda jerk and theater usher, cultivated a comedy routine, in which he mimed phonograph records. In July 1946, Mr. Lewis teamed up with Italian-American crooner Martin, who was nine years his elder. Their ad libs, including insults and off-the-wall jokes, were a sensation,and their salaries skyrocketed from $250 a week to $5,000. Playing up their physical and personality contrasts -- Mr. Lewis' monkeyshines and ineptitude against straight man Martin's sedate, sexy charm -- the duo became overwhelmingly successful, catching the attention of Paramount Pictures producer Hal B. Wallis, who signed the team to a contract with Paramount and produced their first film, My Friend Irma, in supporting roles in 1949 which became a hit. Martin & Lewis made a total of 16 films together as headliners, including At War With the Army (1950), Sailor Beware (1952), The Caddy (1953), Living It Up (1954) and You're Never Too Young (1955), before Martin became tired of Mr. Lewis getting most of the attention, and the pair made their final appearance together at New York's Copacabana club on July 25, 1956, ten years to the day they formed their team. The feud that developed did not publicly end until the MDA telethon of 1976, when Frank Sinatra surprised longtime host Mr. Lewis by bringing Martin onstage. Martin died in 1995. Mr. Lewis then signed a $10 million deal with Paramount for 14 films during a seven-year period, and he formed his own production company. Mr. Lewis found his first solo starring role in The Delicate Delinquent (1957) and quickly followed with a string of hits: The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up the Ship (1959) and The Bellboy, the latter a slew of blackout gags he concocted around the Miami's Fontainebleau Hotel. Mr. Lewis' string of hits continued with Cinderfella (1960) and The Errand Boy (1961), but it was 1963's The Nutty Professor that cemented his reputation. Directing himself, Mr. Lewis starred as a near-sighted professor and chemistry egghead who dazzles his coeds by becoming the ultra-cool pop singer Buddy Love. The movie also served as the basis for Eddie Murphy's retooled remake in 1996, with Murphy taking over the nerdy professor role, this time turning into a sharp-tongued comedian. (Murphy presented Mr. Lewis with the Hersholt trophy at the 2009 Oscars.) After that, his films dropped drastically at the box office, and he experienced his greatest disappointment on TV in 1963 when his two-hour Saturday night talk and variety show didn't click with the socially-conscious mid-1960s era. However, his popularity remained intact in France, which became something of a running gag. For 13 years, Mr. Lewis later admitted, he also was addicted to the painkilling drug Percodan, which was prescribed for treatment of a chipped spinal column he received while doing a pratfall in 1965 on The Andy Williams Show. His controversial 1972 film The Day the Clown Cried -- a drama set inside a Nazi concentration camp -- was never released, although he donated a copy to the Library of Congress in August 2015, with the agreement the film not be shown for a decade. In 1980, after an absence of nearly 10 years from the screen, Mr. Lewis attempted a comeback with the film Hardly Working. More successfully, he followed with a straight role as a talk-show host stalked by an obsessive fan in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982), starring Robert De Niro. Mr. Lewis' dramatic performance as a beleaguered TV star was critically lauded. Mr. Lewis most recently appeared in such films as Cookie (1989), Arizona Dream (1993), Funny Bones (1995) and Max Rose (2016), and he played opposite Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood in The Trust (2016). He performed a cameo as himself in Billy Crystal's Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and guest-starred on a 2006 episode of Law & Order: SVU. In 1991, he was presented with the Comic Life Achievement Award at the National Academy of Cable Programming's ACE Awards. The American Comedy Awards gifted him with a lifetime achievement award in 1998. And the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. presented him with its career achievement honor in 2004. When Mr. Lewis was 18, he met singer Patti Palmer, and they wed 10 days later. During their marriage, which lasted from 1944-82, they had five sons, including '60s pop singer Gary Lewis and adopted another child. His youngest, Joseph, became a drug addict and committed suicide in 2009 at age 45. Mr. Lewis also was known for his efforts as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. He devoted more than a half-century to fighting the neuromuscular disease, hosting an annual Labor Day telethon -- and raising nearly $2.5 billion -- from 1955 until he was ousted before the 2011 telecast. Mr. Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for his efforts. Mr. Lewis' health ailments over the years included open-heart surgery in 1983, surgery for prostate cancer in 1992, treatment for his dependence on prescription drugs in 2003, a heart attack in 2006 and a long bout with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease for which he took Prednisone, causing his face and body to balloon. He reportedly died at 9:15 a.m. at his home in Las Vegas, surrounded by family and friends. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/20/17.

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, who followed up her 1978 No. 3 single "It's a Heartache" with an even bigger hit called "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983, will be singing the latter song during the total solar eclipse that is due to take place in the US on Aug. 21, 2017. Tyler is booked as a special guest for a few days of the week-long Oasis Of The Seas cruise, which sails from Orlando, Fla., to the Caribbean on Aug. 20. The Royal Caribbean vessel will reportedly be positioned in "the path of totality" so Tyler's performance will coincide with those aboard as they view the eclipse, which will be the first solar eclipse in the U.S. since 1979. "It's going to be so exciting. It doesn't happen very often, does it?," Tyler told Time magazine. Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was the No. 1 single in the U.S. for four weeks in 1983. She will be backed by Joe Jonas' band DNCE for the performance. - New Musical Express, 8/16/17...... Olivia Newton-John has updated fans in a new video following the return of her breast cancer, which led her to postpone her tour in May. "I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you who sent such kind and loving messages of support over the past few months," Olivia said in a new clip posted to Facebook. "Your prayers and well wishes have truly helped me, and continued to lift my spirits. I'm feeling great, and so look forward to seeing you soon," she added. The "I Honestly Love You" singer, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, then focused on the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre named in her honor and its new "We Go Together" campaign, which raises money for research, trials and holistic care in an effort to improve the lives of cancer patients. Olivia's organization hopes to raise $1 million through the campaign by encouraging people to share #WeGoTogether messages of "strength and courage" to those with cancer, or loved ones who have passed from cancer, on social media along with their donations. - Billboard, 8/18/17...... Robert Plant announced on Aug. 18 that he'll release a new solo album called Carry Fire on Oct. 13, a collaboration with the likes of the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde and folk singer/multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman. Carry Fire will be the former Led Zeppelin frontman's fourteenth solo album, and his first since 2014's lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. In a press release, Plant said he spent time in Texas before returning to England three years ago and as a result, Carry Fire melds "unusual rhythms with naturalism and smoldering power." "It's about intention, I rspect and relish my past works but each time I feel the lure and incentive to create new work," Plant said of the new album, which features his band the Sensational Space Shifters, which now includes Lakeman. The album's first single, "The May Queen," mixes Plant's ethereal vocals with a driving track that is part drone and part folk shuffle. Plant will launch a world tour beginning in the U.K. tour behind the new LP on Nov. 16 in Plymouth, also playing Bristol, Wolverhampton, Llandudno, Newcastle, Liverpool, Glasgow, Perth and Manchester during that month. In December, he'll visit Belfast, Dublin, Sheffield, London and Portsmouth, before wrapping on Dec. 12 in Birmingham. - New Musical Express, 8/18/17...... Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford says his band is still "going to be playing for the next five years" and will most likely be releasing singles with new tunes, despite lowering their output in the late 2000s and feuding between some members including singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. "You don't have to record a whole CD anymore," Whitford told Billboard. "We've started recording a new song... It's very rock 'n roll.... a musical idea of Joe Perry's." Whitford added: "We actually did some recording while we were touring Europe, and we started recording a new song. We were in the studio in London. The music business has changed so much since we started. You have to do things really differently, We could just release one song and make it available for download. It is a different world in the music business." - Billboard, 8/17/17...... An unreleased live version of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" can be heard on Reed's first posthumous release, Lou Reed and Kris Kristofferson: In Their Own Words with Vin Scelsa. The performance was captured during a performance by Reed and Kris Kristofferson at NYC's Bottom Line club in February 1994. "Lou was very comfortable on the Bottom Line stage," says Archive Series producer Gregg Bandian. "The audience is interacting with (Reed and Kristofferson). Lou just lets it all hang out; He's funny, he's irascible, he's sarcastic. It's a full Lou experience, and it's very pared down and very raw." The release is due Sept. 15, and Bendian says more releases will be coming from the Bottom Line's archive of more than 1,200 shows. - Billboard, 8/17/17...... A new David Bowie biography by British journalist Dylan Jones of GQ magazine called David Bowie: A Life reveals some new details of his wild "Ziggy Stardust"-era life, including the time, according to groupie Josette Caruso, that Bowie was once offered a "warm, deady body" to have sex with, while on tour in Philadelphia in September 1972. Caruso claims the shocking offer made Bowie look "white as a sheet" and said: "Who on Earth do they think I am? Why would they think I'd be interested in something like that? "Why would I be interested in f----- a dead body?" Bowie once described himself as "incredibly promiscuous," and the biography is said to include details about his sex addiction. The singer once revealed he slept with a string of women throughout the 1970s and 80s, and earlier in 2017, lawyers urged any potential love children to come forward to get a share of his £80 million fortune. David Bowie: A Life hits stores on Sept. 12. - New Musical Express, 8/19/17...... In an Aug. 16 interview with the right-wing media outlet Newsmax TV, Country musician Charlie Daniels said the removal of Confederate statues was similar to demolition actions by the terrorist group ISIS. "That's just what ISIS is doing over at the places where they were," Daniels said when asked if Confederate symbols should be removed across the United States. "There were pieces of history over there they didn't like, they're taking them down," he added. Daniels then echoed Pres. Donald Trump's "slippery slope" argument made by the president a few days earlier in a press conference, saying "Where does it stop?... "Is it just going to be Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, or are we headed into Jefferson and Washington, who were both slave owners?... Is everybody in history who we disagree with, we're going to have to wipe every semblance of them out?" The "Devil Went Down to Georgia" singer concluded by saying "They're statues of people who are part of our history... There are people who are part of our history who were not very savory characters... If you don't like it, don't look at it.... I walk past movie posters I don't like [but] I'm not going to go over and tear them down." - Billboard, 8/18/17...... In related news, the family of late Country legend Johnny Cash are condemning a white supremacist who was spotted wearing a Johnny Cash T-shirt during the neo-Nazi rallies protesting that city's removal of Confederate statues that broke out in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12. "[Johnny Cash] would be horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred," Cash's daughter Roseanne Cash posted on Facebook. "The white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville are poison in our society, and an insult to every American hero who wore a uniform to fight the Nazis in WWII," she added. The emotional post was also signed by Kathy, Cindy and Tara Cash. - Billboard, 8/18/17...... Michael Lang, the co-founder of the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York, has organized the new Lovelight Festival which he hopes to bring enlightenment and the arts to an aching country. Running from Aug. 18-21 in Darlington, MD, the Lovelight Festival celebrates yoga, health and the arts of enlightenment for a family-friendly experience over a long weekend. The headliners include Matisyahu, Trevor Hall, MC Yogi and Living Light. Lang and his co-creators, yoga musician Wynne Paris and producer Kim Maddox, have made the event alcohol and drug-free and vegan. Yoga played a key role in the 1969 festival and that legacy is hoped to continue with Lovelight. Lang also says he plans to expand the festival to two other locations. And with the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock coming up in a couple of years, Lang says "We're pursuing a festival event for that." - Billboard, 8/17/17...... Randy Newman has come out in support of the Music Scoring Tax Credit Bill (AB 1300), legistlation in his home state of California which aims to keep film and TV music scoring in the state. "The studio musicians here in Los Angeles are one of the greatest resources this city has," the lauded singer/songwriter/composer said in a statement. "For more than 80 years, Los Angeles musicians have played music heard and admired around the world. In the last ten years or so many filmmakers chose to record elsewhere. Film music has suffered because of it," he added. On Aug. 19, a free concert was presented at Los Angeles' City Hall supporting the California State assembly bill, with various unions particpating and featuring Rickey Minor of American Idol and The Tonight Show. - Billboard, 8/16/17...... A defiant Gene Simmons has made his first public remarks since aborting his attempt to trademark the "rock 'n roll devil horns" hand symbol popularized by Ronnie James Dio. "I regret nothing," Simmons told the U.K. paper The Windsor Star. "Wake up every morning and let your conscience be your guide. Did you know I own the money bag logo? The dollar sign with the bag of money. I own all kinds of things. I own 'motion pictures' as a trademark. Anyone who thinks that's silly -- the silliest thing I've ever done is wear more makeup and higher heels than your mommy." Then turning his attention to Dio's widow Wendy Dio, who has said that the symbol belongs to culture and that "to try to make money off of something like this is disgusting," the Kiss frontman said: "People said, 'You can't do that.' Actually, bitch -- I can. I can do anything I want to do." An investigation into Simmon's claims shows that he does indeed have a trademark on one particular clip art-style image of a bag with a money sign on it, but his other trademark claims are dubious. - NME/Spin.com, 8/18/17...... Foreigner founder and guitarist Mick Jones has revealed plans for the surviving original Foreigner lineup members and second bassist Rick Wills (his predecessor Ed Gagliardi died in 2014) to get together in Michigan this fall for a session that will be filmed, according to Jones, though no firm details have yet been announced. "One thing for sure is all the musicians are getting on very well together and it's just refreshing and we're really enjoying it," says Jones, who reunited with singer Lou Gramm when the duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. "Lou is good, and he's kept his voice. Al [Greenwood] and Ian [McDonald] are playing the same as they did 40 years ago, basically, and it's a hoot. It's great adrenaline and very enjoyable. I think there's no bad apple anywhere in the whole thing, so I can't see any big problems." Jones is equally excited about Foreigner's current 40th anniversary run, which is touring North America this summer after a spring run in Europe. "I have to say it's just wonderful," Jones says. "It feels like the early '80s. The crowds are flocking in everywhere. Nearly everywhere's a sellout and people just want to be out there and have fun with us.... It feels like the old days back again, so it's going tremendously well. I'm just so happy." Jones, who also published the memoir A Foreigner's Tale earlier in 2017, also hinted the energy could send the band back into the studio to record new material. "It just requires a bit of time to concentrate on writing, which I will have coming up early next year," he says. - Billboard, 8/15/17...... Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley and her children, eight-year-old twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood and her 24-year-old son Benjamin Keough honored Presley on the 40th anniversary of his death at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., on Aug. 16. Over 50,000 fans joined the family, including Lisa Marie's mother Priscilla Presley, for a candlelit vigil at Elvis' Memphis estate. Lisa Marie, 47, reportedly carried a torch and lit candles with those who'd turned up to remember the late musician. A procession walked around the grounds where he, his parents and grandmother are buried. Meanwhile, some fans attending the annual ceremony have complained after being charged to visit Elvis' grave to pay their respects. For the last four decades, it has been free to visit his grave to mourn him -- but for the first time in 2017, a fee has been introduced. Elvis fans now have to pay $28.75 for an "Elvis Week Property Pass" wristband to be able to walk up the driveway procession towards his grave. "I understand they are a business, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them making money," one Elvis fan said. "But the current price-gouging situation has created so much friction, it's even dividing fans." Earlier in the week, Priscilla Presley told a British TV interviewer that she didn't think Elvis would "never have overcome his demons." I "I think that he would always have his demons," the 72-year-old Priscilla said. "Elvis was a thinker. He was a searcher. His mother had demons, his father had demons. We all have demons obviously; I don't want to make it bigger than it is. They were a close family but there was always a little bit of sadness in them." In other Elvis-related news, Graceland Holdings LLC has announced it is planning a new $135 million live venue in Memphis that will draw global stars. Also, an "Elvis on Tour: The Exhibition" exhibit is set to open on Nov. 3 in London that will provide Elvis fans with a never before seen glimpse of Presley's life on tour in the 1970's. Among the main attractions are some of Elvis' most recognizable jumpsuits and guitars that he played on tour -- including a Gretzsch Country Gentleman guitar that he used in Las Vegas in 1969. - NME/WENN.com, 8/17/17...... Cher has just released a trippy, magical new song called "Ooga Boo," a contribution to the soundtrack for animated children's television show Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh. The release comes with a psychedelic animated video, where a glamorous alien creature named "Chercophonie" (wink wink) floats through outer space with Tip and Oh, the main characters of the new Netflix spinoff based on the Dreamworks film Home.Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh is streaming now on Netflix. - Billboard, 8/16/17...... Stephen Stills and his former paramour Judy Collins are planning the release of a collaborative album called Everybody Knows, which is due out Sept. 22. The set includes a song Stills wrote for his then girlfriend called simply "Judy," as well as a variety of covers of each other's material, as well as covers by the likes of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the Traveling Wilburys. A new Collins composition, "River Of Gold," will also be featured. "We always were friends," Collins says of Stills. "We didn't ever hate each other. We had a kind of, I would say, dramatic love affair, lots of positive and then a lot of upset because it wasn't working out. And then, of course 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" came along and, I mean, how can you resist when you hear that song all over the country?!" The album project led to a concert tour by the pair that kicked off on July 26 in Highland Park, Ill., and runs through Nov. 4 in Brooks, Calif. - Billboard, 8/15/17...... Grammy Award-winning singer Yvonne Elliman-Alexander of Saturday Night Fever fame and her husband were arrested in Guam on Aug. 15 and charged with illegal drug possession. Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency dogs reportedly sniffed out methamphetamine and marijuana as the two arrived on the island for a benefit concert at a school. Crystal-like rocks, which tested positive for meth, and a glass pipe with suspected methamphetamine residue were in the singer's belongings, according to court documents. Elliman-Alexander, 65, is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance on board an aircraft, a first-degree felony. Allen Alexander is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance as a third-degree felony. The two were released on $10,000 personal recognizance bonds, but they can't leave Guam without permission from the court. They also can't go to any clubs or bars. - AP, 8/18/17...... Original Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey will perform a rare concert at Nells Jazz & Blues in London on Nov. 24 with his new band Alive and Dangerous to mark the 40th anniversary of the classic live Thin Lizzy set, Live and Dangerous. Next year, 2018, celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the Live and Dangerous album. Although the LP was recorded live in 1977 at London's Hammersmith Apollo and Toronto's Seneca College, it wasn't officially released until a year later in 1978. - Noble PR, 8/18/17...... Dick Gregory, the trailblazing comedian, social critic, writer and civil activist who used his humor to break racial barriers and to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, died on Aug. 19 in Washington, D.C., after being hospitalized earlier in the week. He was 84. Mr. Gregory was one of the first black comedians to find mainstream success with white audiences in the early 1960s. He rose from an impoverished childhood in St. Louis to become a celebrated satirist who deftly commented upon racial divisions at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Mr. Gregory also ran for president in 1968 as the Peace and Freedom party candidate. His son, Christian, said his dad died late in the evening and the family posted the following message on Twitter: "It is with enormous sadness that the Gregory family confirms that their father, comedic legend -- Dick Gregory (@IAmDickGregory) August 20, 2017." - AP, 8/20/17.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

The Eagles have just added four more dates to their "An Evening with the Eagles" fall tour, with a shows set for Oct. 17 at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina; followed by an Oct. 20 concert at Philips Arena in Atlanta; Oct. 24 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville; and Oct. 27 at the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit -- late co-founder Glenn Frey's home town. The lineup will again feature Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit joined by Frey's son Deacon Frey and Vince Gill -- the same lineup who recently played the well-received Classic West and Classic East stadium concerts during July. Prior to the next Eagles dates guitarist Joe Walsh is playing a three-show solo run in Las Vegas during September and will host his first all-star VetsAid benefit concert on Sept. 20 in Fairfax, Va. Bassist Timothy Schmit, meanwhile, has solo shows booked during November and December to promote his latest album, Leap Of Faith. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... The new U.K. Elvis Presley compilation 50 Greatest Hits is on track to hit No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Albums Chart Update, which could help the late singer extend his lead as the solo artist with the most U.K. No. 1 albums. Presley moved past Madonna in 2016 to claim the record when The Wonder Of You became his 13th U.K. No. 1 album. Only the Beatles have more No. 1 albums in the U.K., with 15. The annual Elvis celebration in Memphis, Tenn., is set for Aug. 16, with 2017 being the 40th anniversary of his untimely death there at age 42. Meanwhile, a new Kardashian family tell-all by author Jerry Oppenheimer claims that late patriarch Robert Kardashian was allegedly embroiled in a passionate relationship with Elvis' ex-wife Priscilla Presley, and that Elvis would "listen in" on their alleged love-making. In The Kardashians: An American Drama, Oppenheimer claims that Robert fell for Priscilla after being initially snubbed by his future wife, Kris Jenner. Priscilla had just gotten divorced from Elvis after their six years marriage when they embarked on their fling, and Priscilla would get incoherent phone calls from Elvis when she and Kardashian were making love. "She would put the receiver on the pillow and let him listen," Oppenheimer writes. However Priscilla ended the relationship, explaining: "I'm not going to marry anyone until Elvis dies." - Billboard/RadarOnline.com, 8/15/17...... The Pantone Color Institute, which specializes in certifying, categorizing and forecasting color trends, has announced they've partnered with the estate of Prince to create a new custom shade of purple, the late rock star's favorite color, to pay tribute to him. Pantone has dubbed a specific purple hue "Love Symbol #2" in honour of Prince, who passed away in 2016. The shade is inspired by the artist's custom-made Yamaha Purple piano which was made to accompany The Purple One on tour before he died. In the future, the new custom color will be used in all Prince-related material that's published or put out by his estate. - Stereogum.com, 8/15/17...... Pop songstress Dionne Warwick is set to be honored with the Marian Anderson Award, named for a pioneering opera singer, during a ceremony on Nov. 14. The award is handed out in Philadelphia to "critically acclaimed artists who have impacted society in a positive way." Anderson was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Warwick, who has scored 18 consecutive top 100 singles and 20 best-selling albums, has supported many philanthropic campaigns, including those battling AIDS and world hunger. She's also a champion of music education. Previous winners include singer Patti LaBelle, music producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and jazz great Wynton Marsalis. - AP, 8/11/17...... Archival footage of David Bowie, who appeared in director David Lynch's original Twin Peaks series, is being included in the Showtime Twin Peaks sequel, Twin Peaks: The Return. Bowie played FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in the original series, one of the select few FBI agents involved with the "Blue Rose" task force who mysteriously disappeared and reappeared in the late 1980s. A number of scenes in the new show indicate that the agent is alive and well, and working on a plot centering around "Evil Coop" and the infamous green ring. In an episode that aired on Aug. 14, Lynch integrated the footage of Bowie from the early episode "Fire Walk With Me," rather than recasting the role or integrating new material. Lynch also tweeted that he was dedicating the episode to the late rock star. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... In an interview with Rolling Stone,Ringo Starr has revealed how his new collaboration with his former bandmate Paul McCartney on a track from Starr's upcoming album Give More Love came about. "Well, I just called him up and said, 'I got this song called "Show Me the Way," and I want you to play on it," Starr says. "Because he is a really good friend of mine, he said he'd come to L.A. for it. It's about [my wife] Barbara [Bach]. She shows me the way. I wanted it to be very personal." "He's an incredible musician," the 77-year old rock star continued. "He's incredible at singing too and as a writer, but for me, as a bass player, he is the finest and the most melodic." Starr and McCartney also collaborated for a performance at the 2014 Grammy Awards, in commemoration of the Beatles' first appearance on television 50 years earlier. "So we are still pals, but we don't live in each other's pocket," Starr said. Give More Love will drop on Sept. 19. - Billboard, 8/10/17...... Chic principal Niles Rodgers was hospitalized on Aug. 13 over a mystery aliment which forced him to miss a concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on that evening. Rodgers and Chic are currently on the road with Earth, Wind & Fire for a tour dubbed "2054: The Tour," and when the tour hit Toronto the disco legend was grounded with illness and taken to hospital where, he says, doctors "are taking great care" of him. Rodgers, 64, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and documented his battle via his blog. In 2014, he was given the all-clear on cancer and he related his ordeal to the audience during Chic's set at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival in June: "My doctors told me I was suffering from extremely aggressive cancer and that I needed to go home and get my affairs in order... And I feel like the luckiest man in the world tonight because six years after that doctor told me to go home and get my affairs in order, today, six years later, I am cancer-free!" On Aug. 14, Rodgers tweeted: "Thank you all so much. I love @EarthWindFire @CHICorg all the #fans and my doctors who are taking great care of me. See you all very soon." Rodgers, who in April accepted the Award for Musical Excellence at the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, also tweeted that this is the first gig he's missed due to illness. Meanwhile, Rodgers recently revealed that he scrapped a song he had written about Prince for the forthcoming Chic album as "it felt wrong" to include it following the artist's death in 2016. - Billboard, 8/14/17...... In related news, Country legend Willie Nelson was forced to cut a concert short on Aug. 13 after he experienced breathing problems. Nelson's concert at Salt Lake City's USANA Amphitheatre was abbreviated after the singer experienced respiratory problems and checked into a local hospital. A few hours after the incident, the octogenarian music legend, who has battled with a string of health complaints in recent months and years, took to his official website to reassure worried fans: "This is Willie I am sorry to have to cut the SLC show short tonight The altitude got to me I am feeling better now & headed for lower ground - Willie Nelson." Nelson's latest album, God's Problem Child, was released in May and bowed at the top of Billboard's Top Country Albums, his third No. 1 LP on the survey. Nelson has been the target of various online death hoaxes over the years, and he addressed them in a track on that album titled "Still Not Dead." - Billboard, 8/14/17...... Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has once again criticized Radiohead for their decision to hold the closing show of their "A Moon Shaped Pool" world tour in Tel Aviv, Israel. Waters recently appeared on RT to reaffirm his belief that the band's performance in the country served as a message of support for the Israeli government's policies. "[Radiohead frontman] Thom Yorke is wrong about not endorsing the policies of the Israeli government by playing there," Waters said. "When they cross the picket line, they are making a public statement that they do endorse the policies of the government, whatever they say, because that is what will be reported in Israel and that is what gets reported around the world," he added. Thom Yorke previously responded to criticism from Rogers and other by posting a statement on Twitter: "Playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing its government... We don't endorse [Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than [Donald] Trump, but we still play in America." Rogers counters that "Radiohead are being so soundly criticized by anybody with progressive ideas about human rights, because they have taken that step." - Billboard, 8/11/17...... Late country/pop crossover star was reportedly laid to rest during a private ceremony in his hometown of Delight, Ark., on Aug. 9, only a day after his death at age 81. Campbell's family thanked fans for an "outpouring of love" and confirmed on Facebook that the singer was buried during a private service in Delight. "The Campbell family would like to thank everyone for their enormous outpouring of love and support... Glen was laid to rest on Wednesday in a private ceremony in his hometown of Delight, AR. A private memorial will follow," the statement read. Campbell died after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, U.S. sales of Campbell's music grew 5,429 percent in the two days following his death, while streams of his songs increased by 1,430 percent, according to initial data reports to Nielsen Music. On Aug. 8 and 9, Campbell's albums sold 11,000 copies (up 2,300 percent from less than 1,000 on Aug. 6 and 7). His digital songs sold 46,000 downloads (up 7,846 percent from about 1,000 in the two previous days). Combined, his albums (both physical and digital) and digital songs sold 57,000 copies (up 5,429 percent from 1,000 in the two previous days). Campbell's top 10 selling songs and on-demand streamed songs include "Wichita Lineman," "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Gentle On My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Southern Nights," "Galveston," "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," "Adiós," "Country Boy" and "Try a Little Kindness." On the midweek U.K. albums chart, Campbell's final studio album Adiós, soared to No. 3. - New Musical Express/Billboard, 8/11/17...... Former Doobie Brothers member and '80s solo star Michael McDonald is preparing to release Wide Open, his first solo album in a decade. McDonald says he has been busy enough that he hasn't felt that passage of time. "Time seems to fly, especially as you get to be my age now. But it has been a while," he says. McDonald actually started working on demos for Wide Open about eight years ago, letting it take its time until he felt like he had the material with which to make an album. Wide Open will be the follow-up to his 2008 covers set Soul Speak, and his first of original material since Blue Obsession in 2000. Wide Open, which he describes as "pretty eclectic," was recorded primarily at McDonald's own studio in Nashville with drummer Shannon Forrest and features guest appearances by Warren Haynes, Robben Ford, Branford Marsalis and Marcus Miller. McDonald says he will be touring to support Wide Open into the fall, including an appearance on PBS' Soundstage. - Billboard, 8/10/17...... In 1973, masked men abducted the 16-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty -- then the richest man in the world -- off the streets of Rome. But director Ridley Scott says his upcoming film All the Money in the World will focus less on the crime than on the behind-the-scenes drama. The oil tycoon, played by Kevin Spacey, prioritizes his fortune, while the boy's mother (Michelle Williams) pairs with an ex-CIA agent (Mark Wahlberg) to save her child. "I knew about the kidnapping, but this story was very, very provocative," Scott says of David Scarpa's script. All the Money in the World hits U.S. cinemas on Dec. 8. - Entertainment Weekly, 8/14/17.

Carlos Santana and his band paid tribute to late country music icon Glen Campbell during a concert on Aug. 9 in suburban Detroit by performing a stylized version of his Grammy-winning 1967 single "By The Time I Get To Phoenix." "That was for a brother that went home. That was for Glen Campbell," Santana told the audience at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, then joking it was "'By The Time I Get To Tijuana'"... I think it was Phoenix. Anyway, that's a tribute to Glen Campbell." Campbell, who passed away on Aug. 8 at the age of 81 after several years battling Alzheimer's disease, has also been remembered by Beach Boys members Mike Love and Brian Wilson. Campbell toured with the Beach Boys as a replacement for Wilson briefly in 1964, and Love said in a Facebook post that he's "never met a more talented person in all the years we have been in the music business and never had a better time on tour than the time spent with Glen... His sense of humor was incredible and we never laughed so much as when he was with us." Wilson tweeted on Aug. 8 that "I'm very broken up to hear about my friend Glen Campbell. An incredible musician and an even better person. I'm at a loss. Love & Mercy." Country music superstar Brad Paisley said in an interview that he thought Campbell "brought a lot of people to country music because he was just so palatable... That shouldn't be mistaken for saccharine in any way because it was not anything but brilliant." Songwriter Jimmy Webb, Campbell's longtime friend and collaborator, said: "Let the world note that a great American influence on pop music, the American Beatle, the secret link between so many artists and records that we can only marvel, has passed and cannot be replaced.... You have to look hard for a bad song on a Glen Campbell album. He was giving people their money's worth before it became fashionable." - Billboard, 8/9/17...... Deep Purple has just embarked on what they've dubbed The Long Goodbye Tour, which will see the hard rock icons playing at least 65 dates around Europe, North America and South America. The tour will be Deep Purple's final tour of big treks around the world, very much like their classic rock counterparts Black Sabbath and Judas Priest have done. Guitarist Steve Morse, who effectively took over founding member Ritchie Blackmore's slot in 1994, says the band is currently working on what could be its final album and "my guitar playing is more sensitive to the music, the song." Morse adds the upcoming album will "have an awesome producer, Bob Ezrin, who we didn't have before. It was just the band and Roger [Glover, bassist]." - Billboard, 8/8/17...... Bruce Springsteen announced on Aug. 9 that he's prepping for an epic eight-week run of Broadway performances at the 1,000-capacity Walter Kerr Theatre this fall that will mix singing, storytelling and readings from his 2016 memoir, Born to Run. "I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theaters which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind," Springsteen said in a statement announcing the run of shows slated to kick off on Oct. 12. "In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theater is probably the smallest venue I've played in the last 40 years." The rock icon will perform five nights a week -- Tuesday through Saturday -- with the series currently scheduled to run through Nov. 26 after previews, which begin on Oct. 3. "My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music," Springsteen explained. "Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work. All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value." - Billboard, 8/9/17...... Patti Smith will be among the headliners at a concert to fight climate change set for Nov. 5 at New York's Carnegie Hall. The concert, also featuring Cat Power and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe among others, comes two months after Pres. Donald Trump vowed to pull the U.S. out of the landmark global initiative to combat climate change. All proceeds from the event will benefit 350.org, Pathway to Paris and the UNDP. - Stereogum.com, 8/9/17...... A new mugshot of Phil Spector taken in June by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows the 76-year-old music producer smiling broadly and wearing hearing aids on both ears. Previous mugs of Spector, who was convicted in 2009 of killing actress Lana Clarkson and is serving a sentence of 19 years to life, have shown him bald on top but with long, stringy hair in the back. Spector is now completely bald, a far cry from the bizarre huge wigs he wore at his two trials. - AP, 8/8/17...... In a newly surfaced letter written by John Lennon on Nov. 15, 1976 to his former wife Cynthia Lennon, the former Beatle disputes that Yoko Ono was responsible for ending his first marriage. "As you and I well know, our marriage was over long before the advent of L.S.D. or Yoko Ono | and that's reality!," Lennon wrote, then recalled the time she asked him to remarry her and have another child ("I politely told you no") while he was temporarily separated from Ono. He then said that he didn't blame her for trying to cut herself away from the Beatles, but suggested she "should try to avoid talking to and posing for magazines and newspapers!" The letter, and another one written by Lennon as an open letter to magazine editors in response to the British tabloid News of the World publishing advance excerpts of Cynthia's book A Twist of Lennon, are being auctioned online by RR Auctions. Also being sold separately by the auction house in the auction is a book signed by Lennon called Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall by British comic Spike Milligan, which was originally gifted to his friend, Harry Nilsson. - Billboard, 8/8/17...... As Bonnie Raitt nears the end of her summer road trip with James Taylor, the veteran singer and blues guitarist says it's one of the more satisfying adventures in her long and highly collaborative career. "We're having such a great time," Raitt told Billboard. "The two bands love each other, and James and I have known each other since I was 20 and he was not much older and I opened for him at Harvard University. And of course we've worked together on a lot of different environmental shows. I don't get to see him that much -- at the Grammys, and occasionally we'll run into each other at benefits. This is the first time we've toured together. We've been talking about doing this for a long time, and it just worked out in my schedule." Raitt and Taylor wrap up their trek on Aug. 11 at Boston's iconic Fenway Park, where both have musical roots. "There's a lot of love and appreciation" of each other, according to Raitt, who joins Taylor for a rendition of "Close Your Eyes" to close each night. "We did Fenway together in 2015, and it was so special. It never gets old. It's been really warm, and the audiences have been incredible. To hear that many people hushed quiet on the ballads is really an extraordinary thing for me. I could keep doing this for a very long time." Raitt, a longtime supporter of environmentalism, nuclear anti-proliferation and other liberal causes, also weighed in U.S. Pres. Donald Trump: "Things have gotten more absurd and more difficult and more scary and depressing than I ever even expected. Every day is a challenge. We just have to try to stay in the positive solutions and to try be active and promote what I can to make a change happen... I have to figure out what times of the day I'm strong enough to take it but not look away too much, either." - Billboard, 8/7/17...... In related news, founding Journey guitarist Neal Schon is feuding with his bandmates over the controversial 45th American president, recently tweeting up a storm about his anger over a White House visit and meeting with Pres. Trump last week by Journey members, singer Arnel Pineda, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and bassist Ross Valory. "I will remain strong and consistent with the belief we've always shared and agreed upon -- Journey should never be used and exploited by anyone, especially band members for politics or any one religion," Schon posted on Aug. 3. "I've been here since 1972 and this has always been our belief. This was with intent to exploit the brand and use the name. Journey was not there -- 3 individual members were Cain Valory and Pineda whom I found ... Tours are done all the time but it could have been privately," he added. In a tweet on Aug. 7, Schon denied that he's leaving the group over growing tensions, although he hinted that those tensions have been running high for "close to 2 years." Keyboardist Cain is married to Trump's spiritual advisor, Pastor Paula White, one of the religious leaders who participated in Trump's January inauguration. Schon did hint that he might be forming a new version of Journey, and denied that the rift is about Trump or politics, telling one skeptical fan that the group had been invited to the White House several times, including during the Obama administration. - Billboard, 8/7/17...... A long-rumored 3D version of Michael Jackson's famous short for his 1983 hit "Thriller" is set to make its world premiere at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival in Italy, which runs from Aug. 30 through Sept. 9. In making the announcement on Aug. 7, the Jackson estate also said the accompanying The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller documentary -- originally available on VHS between 1983-1990 and not available for purchase in any format since then -- will be screened at the festival. With its nearly 14-minute running time and feature film aesthetics, Thriller redefined the traditional video when it opened at the Avco Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983 for a sold-out three-week run. The short film was directed by John Landis (Animal House, Trading Places), who also co-wrote the script with Jackson after Michael was inspired by Landis' 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. This will mark the first time the Thriller short is ever screened in a cinema, something Landis says he and Jackson always intended. "But we didn't just restore Thriller," Landis added. "We enhanced it -- like in that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the others are being buffed and polished inside Emerald City." Thriller remains the only music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. - Billboard, 8/7/17...... In a recent interview with DJ John Perry of Chicago's 95 WIIL Rock, Ozzy Osbourne responded to claims that rock is dead with a simple denial -- "I'm still alive." "I'm still alive," he said, "[But] I never thought in my lifetime I'd see the demise of records. I never use the computer. It's totally changed. A lot of people steal music now, so a lot of people can't afford to do it anymore." When asked about his ongoing career, Ozzy confirmed that he has no plans to retire soon. "I think I'll do this till the day I die," he continues. "It's not a job; it's a passion. It's great. It pays well." Ozzy and Black Sabbath played their final show in February of this year, at the NEC Arena in their hometown of Birmingham, UK. - New Musical Express, 8/7/17...... In an interview with the London Daily Mail on Aug. 6, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood revealed he refused to undergo chemotherapy after a recent cancer scare because he did not want to lose his hair. Wood said that the possibility of chemotherapy had been discussed but that he decided against it. "It's more I wasn't going to lose my hair," he said. "This hair wasn't going anywhere. I said, 'No way.' And I just kept the faith it would be all right." Wood, who underwent a five hour operation to have a growth in part of his lung removed earlier in 2017, added that he'd been surprised that he hadn't fallen ill sooner after his life of hedonism. "I had this thought at the back of my mind after I gave up smoking a year ago: 'How can I have got through 50 years of chain-smoking -- and all the rest of my bad habits -- without something going on in there?'" the guitarist said. Wood also told the mag that he's kicked cigarettes by using the "heavy duty" nicotine inhibitor Champix and he's fine now, and will be going for regular check-ups. Meanwhile, the Stones will kick off their upcoming 13-date No Filter Tour of Europe on Sept. 9 in Hamburg, Germany, wrapping on Oct. 22 in Paris. - New Musical Express, 8/7/17.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Beloved American singer Glen Campbell, whose perfect blend of country and pop on such hits as "Gentle on My Mind," "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Wichita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" made him one of the most popular musicians of the late '60s and beyond, died on Aug. 8 at a private care facility near Nashville after losing his public battle with Alzheimer's disease for several years. He was 81. Born Glen Travis Campbell on April 22, 1936, in Delight, Ark., to poverty-stricken parents Wesley and Carrie Dell, who picked cotton on a farm, Campbell was the seventh son, one of 12 siblings. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s, where he began to write songs and record demos, and he became a sought-after session guitarist, playing for Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, The Beach Boys (he played guitar on the Pet Sounds album and toured with the band for several months following the breakdown of Brian Wilson), Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and The Monkees, to name a few. He became part of Phil Spector's The Wrecking Crew, the famed session band that played on many of the world's biggest hits at L.A.'s Gold Star Studios, creating the producer's legendary "Wall of Sound." In 1962, Campbell was signed to Capitol Records after releasing the single "Turn Around, Look at Me" on Crest Records a year earlier. His career had only minor success until he partnered with producer Al De Lory and songwriters Jimmy Webb and John Hartford. Campbell's distinctive fingerpicking style and indelible guitar riffs were the perfect foundation that allowed his warm, personable vocals to shine, and the title track to his Burning Bridges album became a No. 18 hit on the Country chart. His cover of Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind" became a top 40 hit on both the Country and Pop charts that year. His biggest accomplishments came when he partnered with Jimmy Webb in the late 60s -- interpreting and singing his songs with a striking intimacy that made them his own. On certain songs, the magic is undeniable: "'Wichita Lineman' and 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix'... it's almost as though the song was waiting for the singer and the singer was waiting for the song," Webb once said. On The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour -- which began as a summer replacement for The Smothers Brothers Show -- the clean-cut Campbell engaged in comedy skits when he wasn't performing and featured many of his friends as musical guests, including Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Linda Ronstadt. Campbell hosted his Goodtime Hour from 1969-1972, and in 1969 he starred as young Texas Ranger La Boeuf in True Grit after being handpicked by John Wayne to star opposite him in his lone Oscar-winning role. He also sang the Oscar-nominated title track. A year later, he starred as the title character in the film comedy Norwood, playing opposite NFL quarterback Joe Namath as Vietnam veterans returning home to Texas. Campbell played himself in Clint Eastwood's 1980 romp Any Which Way You Can, and also did guest stints on such TV series as The F.B.I. and, three decades later, Players -- which also was about FBI agents and was his last acting credit. In 1975, Campbell's rendition of Larry Weiss' "Rhinestone Cowboy" made it to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, as did his cover of Allen Toussant's "Southern Nights," two years later. Campbell released more than 60 studio albums -- selling 45 million and accumulating 12 gold, four platinum and one double-platinum album -- during his half-century in show business. He collected six Grammy Awards and 20 Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year in 1968 for By the Time I Get to Phoenix, and was the recipient of the organization's Lifetime Achievement honor in 2012. Campbell saw something of a career resurgence in 2008 with the release of Meet Glen Campbell, a cheekily titled covers album -- a la Johnny Cash's American Recordings discs -- featuring songs by the likes of U2, the Velvet Underground, Tom Petty and Green Day. He did a brief club tour to promote it that included a well-received stop at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Campbell also played host to the Los Angeles Open, the PGA Tours stop at Riviera Country Club, from 1971-83, and in 1994 he opened the 2,200-seat Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri. Campbell was married four times, the last to Kim Woollen, a Radio City Rockette whom he wed in 1982 when he was 46 and she was 24. She survives him. His earlier marriages included one to singer Mac Davis' second wife, Sarah Barg. He also dated fellow country star Tanya Tucker before meeting Kim, which became tabloid fodder as the two feuded and Campbell battled alcohol and drug addiction, which he later overcame. Campbell had five sons and three daughters. His youngest children Cal, Shannon and Ashley joined him as his backup band on his last series of concerts, dubbed The Goodbye Tour, which launched in Los Angeles in late 2011. Earlier that same year, Campbell announced he was struggling with Alzheimer's disease and was moved to a private care facility for Alzheimers and dementia patients near Nashville in April 2014, where he passed away with his family at his side. His personal struggle with the disease was chronicled in the documentary I'll Be Me, directed by his friend James Keach, which premiered at the 2014 Nashville Film Festival and followed the singer on his farewell tour in the U.S., Australia and Europe as he dealt with his illness. Campbell released the "farewell" albums Ghost on the Canvas in 2012 and See You There in 2013, the latter featuring stripped-down versions of such hits as "Rhinestone Cowboy." Earlier in 2017, he released his final album, Adiós, which was recorded in 2012. "It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease," the family said in a statement, adding "In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Glen Campbell Memorial Fund at Bright Focus Foundation through the CareLiving.org donation page. A personal statement from Kim Campbell will follow. The family appreciates your prayers and respect for their privacy at this time." - Billboard/Deadline.com, 8/9/17.

Brad Serling, the curator of Bruce Springsteen's official live archive, has announced the archive will soon add 25 new recordings for fans to download, beginning with a composite from two shows on his little-heard 1977 tour. On Aug. 4, the archive released the 1977 recordings, which were made by Springsteen's mid-'70s sound engineer Chas Gerber from shows in Rochester and Albany, N.Y. The recordings are in mono, and comprise about two hours and 45 minutes of music all together. According to the Springsteen fansite Backstreets.com, they are the first '77 Springsteen recordings made directly from the soundboard that have ever been made available to fans, either as a bootleg or an official release. The remaining 24 recordings will be released to the archive on the first Friday of each upcoming month. - Spin.com, 8/4/17...... On one drug-fueled night in August 1976, Neil Young recorded a solo acoustic album called Hitchhiker in a single session at Malibu's Indigo Ranch Studios. Although Hitchhiker's title track appeared in a drastically different form on Young's 2010 album Le Noise and most of the other 10 tracks eventually saw the light of day in some form, the original Hitchhiker album was never released because Young was unsatisfied with his performances -- until now. Reprise Records announced on Aug. 4 that Hitchhiker will be released on Sept. 8, and released Hitchhiker's original title track the same day. Along with Homegrown and Chrome Dreams,Hitchhiker is one of Young's so-called "lost albums" he made during an ultra-productive period in the '70s and decided against releasing. In his 2014 memoir Special Deluxe, Young recalled the night when he recorded Hitchhiker with his producer David Briggs and his friend, actor Dean Stockwell also present: "Dean Stockwell, my friend and a great actor who I later worked on Human Highway as a co-director, was with us that night, sitting in the room with me as I laid down all the songs in a row, pausing only for weed, beer, or coke. Briggs was in the control room, mixing live on his favorite console." The album includes familiar gems from albums like "Rust Never Sleeps" and "American Stars 'n Bars" as well as two songs that were never released in any form, "Hawaii," and "Give Me Strength." - Spin.com, 8/4/17...... Gene Simmons of Kiss has weighed in on the decision by Justin Bieber to cancel his World Purpose Tour with 14 dates to go because he has "rededicated his life to Christ." Although Bieber posted a lengthy statement on Instagram explaining the move and telling fans he had done it in order to stay "sustainable," Simmons says he isn't convinced by the explanation. Asked by TMZ.com what he thought about the tour cancellation, Simmons said Bieber needs to "get a life." "You don't have to worry about anything," Simmons said. "You're rich. In case you didn't notice, you're white. You've got white privilege b----... You have nothing to complain about." - WENN.com, 8/4/17...... In an interview with CNN on Aug. 3, Roger Waters addressed the negative reaction to his current Us + Them Tour, which exhibits an overt anti-Pres. Donald Trump sentiment that has caused several people to walk out of the show, especially in largely conservative "red" states. "I find it slightly surprising that anybody could have been listening to my songs for 50 years without understanding," Waters said. When asked what he'd say to fans who wanted escapism and not politics from their concerts, he replied, "Go see Katy Perry or watch the Kardashians. I don't care." - Stereogum.com, 8/3/17...... Sony Pictures and other principals behind the current critical and commercial hit movie Baby Driver are being sued by Roland Feld, the son of late T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan, for failing to clear the use of the T. Rex song "Debora" in the movie. In Feld's complaint, he charges that Sony, along with Media Rights Capital, Bambino Films, and others, "failed to obtain -- or even seek -- the permission of the composition's U.S. copyright holder Rolan Feld," and that in the six weeks since Feld brought the infringement to Sony's attention, "Defendants have done little more than point fingers at one another -- and they have neither apologized nor offered to pay Feld a reasonable license fee." Feld is seeking "disgorgement of profits and punitive damages," and demanding" an order that Sony be permanently enjoined from engaging in improper exploitation." In 2014, Feld brought another lawsuit to reclaim the song rights of his father, who died in a 1977 car accident when Feld was still an infant. Feld won that lawsuit, which gave him the rights to 144 works by Marc Bolan. - The Hollywood Reporter, 8/3/17...... In July, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters revealed to BBC Radio 1 that the new Foo Fighters album which is due in September will feature "the biggest pop star in the world," and after later carifying to Rolling Stone magazine that it "isn't Adele or Taylor Swift, Grohl told ET Canada on Aug. 2 that the star is indeed his old pal -- Paul McCartney. "[Paul] hadn't even heard of the song," Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins added. "He comes in and Dave picked up an acoustic and showed him real quick. He sat on his special drum set that his tech set up for him. I sat there with a drumstick conducting. He did two takes." The new Foo Fighters album, Concrete and Gold, drops Sept. 15. - Spin.com, 8/2/17...... After performing in Fleetwood Mac proper in recent weeks at the Classic West and Classic East festivals, band members Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie brought their summer tour behind their new self-titled joint album to The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 2. Buckingham and McVie's 19-song show features 8 songs from their new LP, including "Too Far Gone," "Lay Down for Free," "Sleeping Around the Corner" and the sparkling "Love Is Here to Stay," which hold their own against the formidable Fleetwood Mac material. The pair also treated fans to a shimmering version of the Mac's "Hold Me," which the band has not played in concert since its Mirage tour 35 years ago. - Billboard, 8/3/17...... Donald Fagen of Steely Dan says that his longtime music partner Walter Becker is "recovering from a procedure and hopefully he'll be fine very soon," but did not elaborate on Becker's surgery or prognosis. Becker missed both of Steely Dan's performances during the recent Classic West and Classic East concerts in Los Angeles and New York, and Fagen admitted the shows, which also featured such classic rock acts as the Eagles and the Doobie Brothers, were a bit odd, and not only because of the absence of his musical partner. "They were fun," Fagen says. "I think it's been a long time since we opened for another band, and that was stranger than I thought it would be because I realized that a lot of the audience, probably a majority fo the audience, was there to see the Eagles, and although we have certain things in common I don't think it's a perfect fit. I'm used to the audience being mainly interested in Steely Dan, so that was a little different. But they were good." Fagen and his new band the Nightflyers -- named after his 1982 solo album The Nightfly -- will kicked off a summer tour with two nights on Aug. 3 and 4 in Port Chester, N.Y., wrapping up the 26-date run Sept. 23-24 at the Yokohama Blue Note Jazz Fest in Japan. Fagen says he's particularly looking forward to giving an airing to songs from his four solo albums, which have taken a back seat since Steely Dan reactivated and began touring extensively in 1993. Fagen added he's also begun writing material with his Nightflyers guitarist Connor Kennedy, which may surface as part of his fifth solo album. "I'd love to go into the studio with these guys," he said. "I've got some new material. We haven't had a chance to work up too many things but on the road I'm hoping to show the guys some of the new stuff I've been writing, and it'll be fun developing that with a band 'cause generally speaking in recent years the way I work is usually alone and doing arrangements by myself, or with Walter. It'll be fun actually having a band to try this stuff out on. I don't think I've done that since the early '70s, probably." - Billboard, 8/2/17...... Founding Queen member Freddie Mercury is among the 100,000 AIDS victims who are memorialized in a 54-ton AIDS memorial quilt, an enormous community art project launched in 1987 to stitch together the story of people who have died from AIDS, to educate the public about the epidemic and to raise funds for prevention, and research efforts to find a cure. The quilt spans more than 30 football fields, making it impossible to move as one unit, so The NAMES AIDS Project unstitches individual sections in order to put parts of the quilt on display at museums, government buildings, churches and schools across the United States. The quilt features other singers and musicians aside from Mercury, who notably has 29 fan-submitted panels dedicated to him. Disco legend Sylvester, rapper Eazy-E from N.W.A., and guitarist Ricky Wilson from the B-52's are also represented on the quilt. Because of the NAMES organization's efforts, the quilt has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, declared an American Treasure by Congress in 2005 and inspired books, songs and even a musical called "Quilt, A Musical Celebration." - Billboard, 8/2/17...... Actor Tom Wopat, best known as portraying Luke Duke on the 1979-1985 CBS show The Dukes of Hazzard, pleaded not guilty on Aug. 3 to groping a female member of the cast of a musical he was supposed to appear in. Wopat, 65, was released on $1,000 bail and was told to stay away from the woman after pleading not guilty to indecent assault and battery and possession of cocaine charges. He refused to comment outside court before driving away from the courthouse. He was arrested by Waltham police on the evening of Aug. 2 on a warrant on the indecent assault charge. Police said that during a search of Wopat and his vehicle they found "two bags of white powder believed to be cocaine." Wopat denied touching anyone inappropriately, according to court documents, and said he flirts but did "nothing that could be considered inappropriate." The Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, where a presentation of "42nd Street" is being staged, issued a statement saying a different actor would play the role of Julian Marsh. Wopat, who is also a Tony Award-nominated stage actor and is a recording artist, said he had played the role of Marsh about 500 times. - AP, 8/4/17...... Keyboardist Goldy McJohn, whose roaring organ solos and big hair helped Steppenwolf become a classic rock staple in the late '60s and early '70s, died on Aug. 1 of a heart attack, according to a post on his official Facebook page. He was 72. McJohn's given name was John Goadsby, but he picked up the nickname "Goldy" in the late 60s and decided to stick with it. He added Mc to his surname to honor his late mother (whose maiden name was McIntyre). McJohn and Toronto-raised lead singer John Kay were among the founding members of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf had been considered for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier in 2017, but was ultimately not selected. The band continues to tour -- now under the name John Kay & Steppenwolf -- with a mix of original and new members. McJohn's wife Sonja said her husband "died at home, that's all I can say," adding they had been together for 30 years. A funeral service has been scheduled for Aug. 11 in Seattle. - 8/5/17...... Australian songwriter Geoff Mack, best known for writing "I've Been Everywhere," died July 21 in Australia at age 94. Mr. Mack wrote "I've Been Everywhere" in 1959. With the Australian town names replaced by American ones, Country star Hank Snow brought the song to No. 1 on the Country charts in 1962. According to Taste of Country, the song has been recorded more than 130 times since then, most famously by Johnny Cash and Lynn Anderson. Mr. Mack was inducted into the International Songwriters Hall of Fame in Nashville in 1963. - 8/4/17...... Actor Ty Hardin, who appeared in the TV western Bronco, has died at the age of 87. Bronco was one of four successful TV westerns produced by Warner Bros., which also included Cheyenne and Maverick, with the stars of each crossing over occasionally to each other's shows. Mr. Hardin also starred in the 1969 series Riptide, a one-seasoner about a guy who operated a charter boat and solved mysteries on the side. - 8/4/17.